Extra Credit: The Los Angeles International Tamale Festival

Ms. L. "Where's My Burrito?" W. woke up late Sunday morning and couldn't decide on whether she wanted dim sum, wontons, dumplings, eggs, burgers, or leftover chili verde for brunch. After a prolonged internal debate about what to eat, she decided to venture out to the Los Angeles International Tamale Festival with Mr. Chris ("C Mo") in search of tamales.

Our first stop was Coronado's Fresh Mexican Kitchen where we ordered a fresh bowl of menudo and a large cup of horchata. The menudo came with a side of warm corn tortillas. Menudo is basically a stew with hominy, tripe and other beef parts, flavored with chili and other spices. C Mo found the menudo authentic, but definitely not the best. Ms. L.W. found the menudo a bit too spicy but nonetheless, thought it was overall a very tasty stew.

The next booth caught our attention with its rows of bunuelos (fried tortilla dough). Even though bunuelos are traditionally eaten during Xmas, we had to get one now!! We also ordered 2 tamales, one with spicy beef, and the other with beef in pasilla sauce.



The bunuelo had sprinkles of brown sugar, cinnamon, and a healthy drenching of a caramel-ish sauce. They were fried to perfection, with pockets of air bubbles that gave it an interesting texture. These babies were soooo good, I must have inhaled half of one in under 45 seconds. We found the beef in the tamales dry and bland. Most of the flavoring came from the red and green salsas and not the meat, so we were a bit disappointed with the tamales.



We finished off with a pork and a beef tamale from Nini's Tamales. We picked this booth because Nini's beef tamale supposedly won 1st place in the tamale contest. Although Coronado's had bigger tamales, Nini's tamales tasted slightly better. Nini's tamales had very tender and moist meat. The corn "masa" covering was softer and less "crumbly" than the Coronado ones. However, like the Coronado ones, we found that both the pork and the award-winning beef tamale lacked in flavor.

Overall, we were quite disappointed with the quality of tamales at the festival. We know one can find much better tamales in LA, and the ones at the festival were definitely not representative of what LA has to offer. Better hunting next time!! :)